Milpitas High School’s principal profanely insults Donald Trump and gets placed on administrative leave. Donald Trump mocks the handicapped, insults Hispanics, demeans women, slanders his opponent in the media and is on tape using profanity and gets elected to the White House. How do we explain this to our children?

Cliff WellsSan Jose

Stop the crying over Clinton’s loss to Trump

To my knowledge, neither the U.S. Constitution nor any federal law defines “mandate” or imposes limitations on the powers of a president who doesn’t have one.

It seems your editorial (“Trump win isn’t close to a mandate,” Editorial, Nov. 15) is nothing more than the wailing of a sore loser.

David Marion Morgan Hill

Founders erred in creating Electoral College

Jerry Mungai’s justification of the Electoral College is based on badly flawed history. Like many egregious features written into our Constitution (e.g., the 3/5-person rule for slaves and two senators per state), the Electoral College was created to appease the slave states, which were small and feared losing power over elections decided by a popular vote dominated by the larger non-slave states.

J.R.MartinezSunnyvale

Trump’s actions speak louder than his words

I’m sure that I’m not that only one who sees nothing but blatant hypocrisy when Donald Trump’s response to the news that his supporters were intimidating Latinos, Muslims and other groups was to say Sunday to “60 Minutes” viewers, “I would say don’t do it, that’s terrible … I will say right to the cameras: stop it.”

Meanwhile, he announced that former Breitbart news executive Steve Bannon will be his chief strategist and senior counselor. During an interview in July, Bannon proudly declared of Breitbart “We’re the platform for the alt-right.” The alt-right is an extreme but not well-defined wing of the conservative movement that rants against immigrants, Muslims, the globalist agenda, and multiculturalism and that generally advocates white nationalism. The alt-right also generates a hefty amount of anti-Semitism. I was always taught that actions speak louder than words. Forgive me, then, Mr. Trump, if I don’t believe a word that you said Sunday night.

Judith TurnerSan Jose

Retired judge’s letter shows poor judgment

LaDoris Cordell (Letters, Nov. 14) demonstrates extremely poor judgment. Rather than assuage the divisiveness over the election, she chooses to denigrate the president-elect and the people who voted for him. This exacerbates the hostility and sets a poor example for our youth. A paragon of judiciary excellence she is not.

Willy Falk San Jose

Trump’s view on court rulings is inconsistent

During his interview on “60 Minutes,” Donald Trump was asked if he accepts marriage equality. He said that it is “irrelevant because it was already settled in the Supreme Court. … I’m fine with it.” The issue of a woman’s right to have an abortion was also settled in the Supreme Court, yet Trump said he will appoint pro-life judges who might overturn Roe v. Wade, returning that decision to the states. This inconsistency is only one of many we can expect from the president-elect.

Nancy TivolSunnyvale

Obama turned his back on political foes after victory

While grieving over the results of this election, Democrats might recall President Obama’s response to republican members of congress requesting a meeting to discuss the way forward in the governance of the country. His response…”elections have consequences, I won”, as he turned his back and walked away.

Sue RobertsonSan Jose

Don’t compromise racism for economic gains

Your article, “Fear follows election” (Page 1A, Nov. 13) describes my fear perfectly. You interview Alia who says “You’ve become strangers to the people you work with,” because half this nation voted for Donald Trump and you’re unaware of who did. It’s scary to know who is hiding behind a vote because, as someone who wears the hijab, I cannot hide my identity or my religion. It’s frightening to thinking that I could potentially be associating myself with someone who doesn’t want me in this country. I’m not accusing someone who voted for Trump of being racist because their vote for him could mean that they wanted an economic change. But you can’t compromise racism for the economy. In the end, a vote for him would mean that you condone his Islamophobia and hatred toward other groups, and I am not OK with that.